NULL Pointer Dereference Affecting rtla package, versions <0:5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4


Severity

Recommended
high

Based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.16% (6th percentile)

Do your applications use this vulnerable package?

In a few clicks we can analyze your entire application and see what components are vulnerable in your application, and suggest you quick fixes.

Test your applications
  • Snyk IDSNYK-RHEL9-RTLA-14908835
  • published9 Jan 2026
  • disclosed24 Dec 2025

Introduced: 24 Dec 2025

CVE-2023-54038  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-476  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade RHEL:9 rtla to version 0:5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4 or higher.
This issue was patched in RHSA-2024:2394.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream rtla package and not the rtla package as distributed by RHEL. See How to fix? for RHEL:9 relevant fixed versions and status.

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

Bluetooth: hci_conn: return ERR_PTR instead of NULL when there is no link

hci_connect_sco currently returns NULL when there is no link (i.e. when hci_conn_link() returns NULL).

sco_connect() expects an ERR_PTR in case of any error (see line 266 in sco.c). Thus, hcon set as NULL passes through to sco_conn_add(), which tries to get hcon->hdev, resulting in dereferencing a NULL pointer as reported by syzkaller.

The same issue exists for iso_connect_cis() calling hci_connect_cis().

Thus, make hci_connect_sco() and hci_connect_cis() return ERR_PTR instead of NULL.

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1